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HHE Report No. HETA-87-266-1860, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Washington, D.C.

In response to a request from representatives of the Technical Services Division, U.S. Department of the Treasury (SIC-9311), Bureau of Engraving and Printing (SIC-2754) in Washington, D.C., a study was made of possible hazardous exposures to contaminants in inks supplied by currency ink contract bidders and of the Bureau's evaluation methods. Several incidents of irritant symptoms in workers had occurred. Personal and area air samples were analyzed for acetaldehyde (75070), acrolein (107028), formaldehyde (50000), butanal (123728), pentanal (110623), and hexanal (66251). Area formaldehyde samples ranged from 0.1 to 0.2 parts per million (ppm), and personal samples ranged from 0.3 to 0.6ppm. Butanal levels ranged from not detectable to 0.5ppm; pentanal and hexane were present only in trace amounts. No samples contained any detectable levels of acetaldehyde or acrolein. Area samples for acetone (67641), 1,1,1-trichloroethane (71556), and toluene (108883) were negligible. Mineral-spirits (8030306) were detected up to 63mg/m3 and kerosene (8008206) up to 12mg/m3. The only hazardous condition found was exposure to formaldehyde at levels which have been shown to cause irritation. The author concludes that workers are exposed to potential irritant levels of formaldehyde vapor. Recommendations are made regarding modification of study protocol and analytical method, ventilation systems, monitoring air quality, speeding up offgassing of aldehydes from printed currency, and substitution of formaldehyde containing resins.